Ralph

[JemimaTiggywinkle]

How would you pronounce Ralph?

Yep - cannot understand why it has become so popular - Forever by Judy Blume means that name only has one meaning to me too lol!! But l am one of the older mums, guessing younger mums don't have the same association! Would pronounce it Ralf not Rafe

Raif.

Would pronounce it Ralf. I like it. I also like Rafe. I don’t think many under a certain age will have read Judy Blume so I think you’ll be alright there. It’s a perfectly normal name that is increasing in popularity.

@Orphlids

The “correct” pronunciation of Ralph is “Rafe”. Saying Ralf is a bit like pronouncing Magdalen College as Mag-da-len. But these days, not many people would think of Ralf as being incorrect. The incorrect pronunciation has become a name in its own right. But when I read Ralph, I say Rafe.

It's actually well accepted that it can be pronounced either way. The 'rafe' pronounciation is more prevalent in upper classes/RP speakers if that's what you mean by correct? Which I suppose makes all of us with regional dialects and variant accents 'incorrect' in your eyes

@AyeCorona1

Anyone read 'Forever' by Judy Bloom as an impressionable teen?

I came here to post that too.

@Whatsyourflava

Oh crumbs not all this penis stuff again. Ralph is a top 100 name now. No one reads Judy Bloom these days. I'm sure people's penis' have all sorts of human names!

On Mumsnet I keep hearing this penis stuff about the names Percy and Woody too, both names are climbing the charts massively. Still rare but on huge upswings. Yet many here seem horrified the names even being considered. I think we're a bit behind the times on mumsnet!

I think the thing is that those of us who read Forever as young teens are now into our mid 40s. There are many more women younger than us that are having babies.

All I can't think about is the Judy Blume book Forever too!!

I know a teen Ralph. Rafe.
Never heard the name rafe before I met him. Like the name. Especially as rafe.
But I never worked out how Ralph becomes rafe.
Unless r a l p h
Got misred from r ai p h ?
Where does the "l" go to?
Raphe would give a long a sound.
As would ai.
But al being a?

Yes was thinking Judy Bloom

Ralph is pronounced Rafe.

If you want it pronounced Rafe then I wouldn’t spell it Ralph because all you’ll be doing is correcting people. I never read Judy Blume and I’ve never heard it referred to as a shorthand for anything else but I do think of Ralph Malph from a Happy Days which certainly ages me.